A Minute to Pray, a Second to Die (1967)

[Tim]

  I was watching El Dorado with the Duke and Robert Mitchum this week and realized how similar parts of it is compared with A Minute to Pray, A Second to Die.  Now, obviously one's an American western and one's a spaghetti, but it seems Second to Die borrowed from this Duke western.

  In El Dorado, Cole Thornton is shot in the back and has attacks where the bullet remains near his spine.  In Second to Die, McCord has something similar, although for much of the movie he thinks its epilepsy.  Thought this was interesting, another case of westerns borrowing from westerns.

[JamesK]

In El Dorado, Cole Thornton is shot in the back and has attacks where the bullet remains near his spine.  In Second to Die, McCord has something similar, although for much of the movie he thinks its epilepsy.  Thought this was interesting, another case of westerns borrowing from westerns.

Yeah, I thought the misdirection was very well done, though if you read Ebert's review (referenced earlier in the thread), he behaves as though this is some kind of out-and-out plagiarism and therefore an indicator of how worthless Italo-Westerns are.

Clearly I disagree with that assessment, but there you are.

[The Peacemaker]

I don't know why people need film critics. Most of them are pompous and arrogant anyway.

[JamesK]

I don't know why people need film critics. Most of them are pompous and arrogant anyway.

I appreciate critics when they actually take the time to examine the film/book/whatever in question and give me a reasoned assessmet.  When it's basically nothing but this is stupid and I hate it, I'll agree they aren't much use.

[cigar joe]

Yea they come in handy especially where you have little known films and foreign films that don't get a wide release.

[Poggle]

I enjoyed this movie a lot, one of my greatest SW watching experiences, right next to Ace High which I got at a Virgin megastore in Orlando a few weeks ago. I watched it again when my head was in tune and I thought it was one of the most genius plots of any SW(Ace High, that is) and would love to see the rest of the Cat Stevens movies. Anyway, back to A Minute to Pray' here. Since not too many people who have mentioned their opinions on the film here haven't written many reasons for their feelings I shall write something:

It was obvious there were cuts done to the film(Makes me think that those odd dissolves were where deleted scenes were) but I think that helped in keeping it tight. I like the fact that the story didn't have any obvious plot in the beginning and with each scene you found out something new and that, mixed with the tight editing of having scenes that are strictly relevant to moving the plot along, kept me interested from the beginning to the end which is something that rarely happens, like with Breathless. I loved the story, it was interesting how nobody was really honest and there were all these backstabbers and hypocrites. That gave a certain unpredictability to the story.
I thought the visual style of the film and the production design were very different from most Italian westerns, it showed how the director wasn't some pretentious Leone clone and had his own statements to make with the genre. Because of that it didn't have the usual SW feel but there was too much in it that was very Spaghetti-like that had I not known it was a SW I would definately think it was quite a different kind of American western following in the footsteps of the SW directors. In a way it's middle ground between the Italian and American western moods and style. The Spaghetti elite never cease to slip past me, the women are treated like ****** in a man's world, there are great infamous flashbacks, everybody is a greedy and dishonest pig, betrayals, beatings and torture, the law is corrupt, the hero isn't invincible and faultless, etc. if anything the SW feel is felt most through the story and plot devices.

I'm glad they made great use of both Spain AND Italy for the filming. I love Spain's deserts a lot but I also love when westerns get into greenery, like GBU, MNIN, Face to Face and Mannaja. It adds a feeling of diversity and epicness, but even more so because they filmed it in two different countries which makes it feel more epic than usual, like OUATITW, MNIN, and Ace High. It was interesting how the cuts between Spain and Italy didn't feel like going from one country to the other in a matter of seconds, they blurred the lines perfectly and at times I had to think "Is this Spain or Italy?".

I don't care what anyone else thinks but this is one of my new favorite non-Leone SW's.

[The Firecracker]

I watched it again when my head was in tune and I thought it was one of the most genius plots of any SW(Ace High, that is) and would love to see the rest of the Cat Stevens movies.

havent seen "God Forgives I dont" but "Boot Hill" is absolute trash. Stay away from it.

stick with Cat stevens music instead

[The Peacemaker]

havent seen "God Forgives I dont" but "Boot Hill" is absolute trash. Stay away from it.

stick with Cat stevens music instead

Boot Hill isn't THAT bad.   

[The Firecracker]

Boot Hill isn't THAT bad.   

name one decent thing that happens after the 15 minute mark.

[The Peacemaker]

name one decent thing that happens after the 15 minute mark.

I have to watch it again. The last time I saw it was in February.

[The Firecracker]

Okay I bought a vhs copy on ebay for a dollar and finally sat down to watch this.

It was okay. With the exception of an early gundown by a campfire, the whole affair felt more like an American western influenced by the spaghetti craze than a full fledged Italian western.
Score is unremarkable.
Nice to see that Giraldi kept the tradition (started by Leone) of having Mario Brega die a gruesome death. The aftermath isn't shown but you could imagine.

Some action scenes I felt would have been better if they went an extra step further. For example during the church shoot out Cord should have entered the confessional and the gunman, posed as a priest, should have attempted to kill him by firing a shot to the other side of the box.
Instead the gunmen just pops out of the confessional and Cord shoots him dead.


above average but nothing special.

6/10


I would love to see the uncut version or at the very least the downer ending (is this available anywhere?).

[Ben Tyreen]

I would love to see the uncut version or at the very least the downer ending (is this available anywhere?).

 I've never gotten a straight answer if the downer ending is available anywhere, but I'd like to see that too.  It's somewhat of a downer ending as is, but w/ the one where Cord gets gunned down, we're talking The Great Silence territory.  In my rating, it'd definitely go up a point w/ the downer ending.

[cigar joe]

Its the same with James Garner's "A Man Called Sledge" I'd like to see the uncut version of that with Laura Antonelli's murder parts back in, and whatever else got trimmed/cut for the US release. Also in international cut of Bronson's "Chato's Land" that also has his wife's rape & murder cut out. Its hard to evaluate some of these with horrendous key scenes cut out.

[Banjo]

Haven't seen this in a long time but its pretty good as i remember it and the epilepsy theme gives it a unique slant.

I'm surprised to hear that my version maybe lacking 20 minutes in all but hopefully Franco Cleef or someone can get hold of an uncut Italian print and put on some English subs for the extra bits because this film deserves it.

7 out of 10(in its present cut state)   

[O'Cangaceiro]

I watched this movie this morning and I found it just OK. I believe it is the last spaghetti western that Giraldi made, quite different and in a more serious tone than the two Mac Gregors movies and Sugar Colt. Nevertheless, it failed to either make me laugh, or to provide a good deal of excitement, or have a good musical score (Nicolai, Morricone, Bacalov, etc) which are the ingredients I normally look for in SWs. Perhaps the movie was too American style for my liking.